Abstract

We present a linear relationship between the cohesive energies and the H/Si ratio for hydrogen-terminated Si semiconductor nanostructures based on our model analysis and first-principles calculations. The H/Si ratio is shown to be a universal predictor of the nanostructure’s energetic stability and allows easily searching of magic numbers in Si quantum dots. Our findings substantially improve the understanding of nanostructure stability and make practical the prediction of structuralproperties.

Received 02 October 2009Accepted 26 November 2009Published online 23 December 2009

Acknowledgments:

H.X. and X.B.Y. contributed equally to this work. The work described in this letter is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB933000), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR (Project No. CityU 103907), and Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM) of the City University of Hong Kong.